LOUISVILLE -- Tom McAvinew, a lifelong Republican and a Louisville resident for nearly three decades, knew he was a bit of a fish out of water living in an overwhelmingly Democratic stronghold like Boulder County.

But the 71-year-old design engineer's political leanings had never caused him a problem until earlier this month, when two of his Mitt Romney/Paul Ryan campaign signs were plucked from his front lawn on Lois Drive in the middle of the night. After placing a handwritten tongue-in-cheek message on his lawn explaining the theft, McAvinew said whatever political hijinks had been at play suddenly turned ugly.

Upon walking out to his driveway one morning last week, he found both of his vehicles "keyed" -- or scratched -- with a telltale "R" carved into the fender of his Subaru Forester.

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McAvinew is convinced the incidents are related and that he and his wife have become the target of some anti-Republican rage. He reported the theft and the vandalism to Louisville police and now pulls his three replacement Romney/Ryan signs in at night so they don't go walking after dark. He estimates the damage to his Forester and Buick LeSabre at more than $6,000.

"I was dumbfounded," he said. "Signs are one thing, but damage is another. We've been here for 28 years, and we've never seen anything like this happen."

McAvinew, a self-described moderate Republican who for the most part doesn't align himself with the Tea Party agenda, hopes the political crimes were committed by a rogue actor or a small group and are not indicative of a more destructive mood amongst the electorate.

"We feel this is a free speech country -- can't we talk?" he said.

Disagreement, even vitriol, has always been a part of any heated election season and the theft of campaign signs is as old as the signs themselves. But Boulder County Republican Party Chairman George Leing said things seem a bit more rough-and-tumble these days, with Republican campaign volunteers in the county encountering more hostility from homeowners during their door-to-door visits.

"There is this growing lack of civility, it seems," he said. "It makes people not want to participate -- no one wants to be yelled at. Aren't we all still citizens of the same country?"

McAvinew's experience in Louisville comes during a season of high-profile political shenanigans in the Denver metro area that range from the expected to the bizarre to the truly dangerous. Earlier this month, more than 100 campaign signs went missing in Superior, while in Arapahoe County, vandals have been at work defacing and stealing signs -- in one case lifting more than 200 from a single neighborhood. Headlines were made earlier this week when a homeowner in Littleton reported receiving in the mail a half-eaten turkey carcass wrapped in a torn-up political sign.

At the presidential level, vandals spray-painted a swastika on an Obama campaign office in Conifer on Oct. 19, and a week earlier, someone shot through the window of another of the president's campaign offices in Denver. Workers were inside at the time, but no one was injured.

"I think the demonization of your opponent as a campaign tactic has been much more intense in the last 10 years than ever before," Boulder County Democratic Party Chairman Dan Gould said. "Stealing signs or damaging property in a political way is absolutely inappropriate."

Nick Saia, a vigorous Obama backer who has lived across the street from McAvinew for seven years, said it's sad that his neighbor appears to have been attacked for his political views. The Precinct 206 Democratic leader cares deeply about his party and its candidates but said people need to know what lines not to cross in expressing political dissent.

"I'm passionate about politics, but you don't start destroying people's property over this," Saia said. "We're trying to teach our children the lesson of agreeing to disagree."

Cmdr. Bill Kingston, of the Louisville Police Department, said the case is considered closed because no neighbors saw anyone stealing the signs or damaging McAvinew's cars, and there are no suspects or leads. While damaging property in the name of a political cause is "uncommon" in Louisville, Kingston said this year doesn't seem any worse than any other year in terms of election season misdeeds.

Karen McAvinew, Tom McAvinew's wife of more than 40 years, has decided not to take the abuse lying down. After the couple's two signs went missing the first time, she replaced them with three.

"If there are any more problems, we just might get another one," she said.

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